Books That Are Coming Out This Year That I’m Excited About

In the world of TikTok and Instagram, it’s kind of hard not to continually have books added to the reading list. This year, these are the ones I’ve heard about, and that piqued my interest. I probably won’t read these anytime soon because I like looking for my books secondhand. Now and then, I get a surprise and someone buys me a new book. Those days are the best. Shoutout to Raul from my job for giving me the new Stephen King book, Fairy Tale which I’m currently reading.

I’ll be honest. I got these excerpts from Goodreads and will not be paraphrasing them because I haven’t read the books.

Published on February 16, 2023

Life for Bella Marble isn’t exactly as she planned it to be. She thought that she would be an author, and yet she works as a receptionist at a small press. Bella also saw herself happily married, and yet she’s single. Her whole world just isn’t right because her parents who’ve been in love since she could remember, are getting divorced. To top it all off, her best friend Ellie Mathews is moving out and marrying boring Mark, who could never be enough for Ellie. Bella feels lost, and she’s only slightly comforted by the night she spent with Ellie’s (not hot) brother, (really not hot) Marty (okay he’s hot. He’s also always been the irritating brother she never had-right)?

Marty recommends Bella stops looking for “the one” and just have fun, Bella finds a new empowered side of herself. With this newfound courage, she posts a retelling of a one-night stand gone wrong with a fairytale twist to it. Next thing she knows she’s B. Enchanted, she’s in a fight with Ellie, her roommates are weird and she’s on the line for another fairy tale that she hasn’t even lived yet.

This book sounds good. I like a good retelling, I’m just curious to see if it holds up well. Some authors can do it justice and others just give the same old plotline with updated names. I’m a little bummed about Bella getting together with Ellie’s brother because that means that Ellie and Bella probably won’t become an item. Although, with how the excerpt emphasized how no one would be good enough for Ellie I thought that we might see a little bit of a best friend-to-lovers plot.

Published on January 10, 2023

Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world’s first encyclopedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small talk at a party — or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, Shadow, and the Fair Folk to other people.

So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, get in the middle of Emily’s research, and utterly confound and frustrate her.

But as Emily gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones — the most elusive of all faeries — lurking in the shadowy forest outside the town, she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: Who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he want? To find the answer, she’ll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all — her own heart.

I’m intrigued and also a little disappointed at the same time. I want this book to be more than just a woman falling in love with a man. I want this to be a damn good book about a woman who knows what she wants and is going for it. I, too, enjoy the company of my books and my dogs more than actual people. I’m excited to see how Heather Fawcett writes this particular story.

Out by: November 28, 2023

It’s been hundreds of years since King Arthur’s reign. His descendant, Arthur, a future Lord and general gadabout, has been betrothed to Gwendoline, the quick-witted, short-tempered princess of England, since birth. The only thing they can agree on is that they despise each other.

They’re forced to spend the summer together at Camelot in the run up to their nuptials, and within 24 hours, Gwen has discovered Arthur kissing a boy and Arthur has gone digging for Gwen’s childhood diary and found confessions about her crush on the kingdom’s only lady knight, Bridget Leclair.

Realizing they might make better allies than enemies, they make a reluctant pact to cover for each other, and as things heat up at the annual royal tournament, Gwen is swept off her feet by her knight and Arthur takes an interest in Gwen’s royal brother. Lex Croucher’s Gwen and Art Are Not in Love is chock full of sword-fighting, found family, and romantic shenanigans destined to make readers fall in love.

I want to read this book so dang bad. It’s got a little bit of everything in it, queer love, enemies to friends, and it has the King Arthur spin on it as well. I read Meg Cabot’s Avalon High and fell in love with King Arthur retellings. Matter of fact, I should reread that book too. I remember the ending being borderline fantastic. That’s what really gets me to reread books, is just to see if they hold up to my memory of them. This book also comes out on my birthday so it’s fate right? Right.

Out by: May 30th, 2023

It’s summertime and 17-year-old Coley has found herself alone, again. Forced to move to rural Oregon after just losing her mother, she is in no position to risk her already fragile heart. But when she meets Sonya, the attraction is immediate.

Coley worries she isn’t worthy of love. Up until now, everyone she’s loved has left her. And Sonya’s never been with a girl before. What if she’s too afraid to show up for Coley? What if by opening her heart, Coley’s risking it all?

They both realize that when things are pushed down, and feelings are forced to shrivel away, Coley and Sonya will be the ones to shrink. It’s not until they accept the love they fear and deserve most, that suddenly the song makes sense.

Based on the billboard-charting smash hit song and viral music video GIRLS LIKE GIRLS, Hayley Kiyoko’s debut novel is about embracing your truth and realizing we are all worthy of being loved back.

I absolutely love the song Girls like Girls and I’ve had a crush on Hayley Kiyoko since Wizards on Waverly Place when she played Stevie. That right there was a part of my gay awakening. Since she decided to write a lesbian coming of age story, how could I say no? The answer is I can’t so I shan’t lol.

Out by: October 3, 2023

A witch and a hunter. Vengeance is their mission. Love is their destiny.

Fritzi is a witch. A survivor of a brutal attack on her coven, she’s determined to find her only surviving family member and bring the hexenjägers — zealot witch hunters — to justice for the lives they ended. To do this, she will need to take down their leader — Kommandant Dieter Kirch.

Otto is a hexenjäger and a captain, the second in command to Dieter Kirch — but that’s just his cover. Years ago, the hexenjagers burned his innocent mother alive and since then, he has been planning a move against the witch hunters that tore his family apart. And now the time has come for them to pay for what they’ve done.

When Fritzi and Otto are unexpectedly thrown together, neither is sure they can trust the other, despite their common enemy. But all they have is one another, and they both crave revenge. As truths come to light and trust shifts, Fritzi and Otto uncover a far more horrifying plot at the center of the hexenjäger attacks . . . but their own growing feelings for each other may be the most powerful magic of all.

Time for me to say it. I’m a witch, so any book with witches in them, I feel the need to read. I figure this is going to be more of like they can actually do magic where I work with energies. Not to mention the whole undercover right hand man aspect. That sounds like it’s going to be a thrilling ride. I am very excited to see how all of this pans out for them both. I’m also a sucker for a happy ending obviously from the list that I’ve put together so far. It’s my own guilty pleasure.

Published on: March 7, 2023

Savannah Wilde is a witch, a very powerful one — an identity that only her fellow witches know. Following a whirlwind romance that surprised herself and her family, Savvy is all set to marry the love of her life. But she isn’t the only one with a secret that needs to be kept, even from her soon-to-be husband.

Griffin Carter is a top agent for a clandestine organization that, well, used to primarily hunt witches, but now mainly tries to shut down supernatural threats their own way. He can’t wait to lay his eyes on the woman he’s about to spend the rest of his life with.

As Savvy walks down the aisle to Griffin, the wedding quickly goes from blessed day to shit show when their true identities are revealed. To say there’s bad blood between their factions is putting it mildly. Savvy and Griffin are tasked to take the other out, but when they discover a secret that could take down both of their agencies, they realize the only way to survive is to team up. With assassins hot on their trail, will Savvy and Griffin make it out alive to try again at ‘I do’?

Witches AND forbidden love situation? SIGN ME UP. Plus this one is a retelling of Mr. & Mrs. Smith as well. I really enjoyed that storyline and I’m hoping that adding the fantasy detail is going to send it to the top.

Published on: March 14, 2023

Sixty-year-old self-proclaimed tea expert Vera Wong enjoys nothing more than sipping a good cup of Wulong and doing some healthy ‘detective’ work on the internet (AKA checking up on her son to see if he’s dating anybody yet).

But when Vera wakes up one morning to find a dead man in the middle of her tea shop, it’s going to take more than a strong Longjing to fix things. Knowing she’ll do a better job than the police possibly could — because nobody sniffs out a wrongdoing quite like a suspicious Chinese mother with time on her hands — Vera decides it’s down to her to catch the killer.

Nobody spills the tea like this amateur sleuth.

This is giving me The Trap vibes. Go to this link: () to read my review of that book. TL:DR I loved it and I’m hoping that I’m going to enjoy this one as well. Plus who doesn’t love a mother who can’t seem to mind their own business. Okay so we all want it to stop, but it’s kind of helpful when they are right so often too.

Out by: May 16, 2023

Felicity “Fizzy” Chen is lost. Sure, she’s got an incredible career as a beloved romance novelist with a slew of bestsellers under her belt, but when she’s asked to give a commencement address, it hits her: she hasn’t been practicing what she’s preached.

Fizzy hasn’t ever really been in love. Lust? Definitely. But that swoon-worthy, can’t-stop-thinking-about-him, all-encompassing feeling? Nope. Nothing. What happens when the optimism she’s spent her career encouraging in readers starts to feel like a lie?

Connor Prince, documentary filmmaker and single father, loves his work in large part because it allows him to live near his daughter. But when his profit-minded boss orders him to create a reality TV show, putting his job on the line, Connor is out of his element. Desperate to find his romantic lead, a chance run-in with an exasperated Fizzy offers Connor the perfect solution. What if he could show the queen of romance herself falling head-over-heels for all the world to see? Fizzy gives him a hard pass — unless he agrees to her list of demands. When he says yes, and production on The True Love Experiment begins, Connor wonders if that perfect match will ever be in the cue cards for him, too.

The True Love Experiment is the book fans have been waiting for ever since Fizzy’s debut in The Soulmate Equation. But when the lights come on and all eyes are on her, it turns out the happily ever after Fizzy had all but given up on might lie just behind the camera.

The Soulmate Equation has popped up on my BookTok and Bookstagram, so it’s on the reading list as well. I’m hoping to read that one first to get all of the little throwbacks to it in The True Love Experiment, apparently there are a few of them. Other than that it’s a stand alone book so you don’t HAVE to read The Soulmate Equation first.

Out by: July 4, 2023

Chandler Cohen has never felt more like the ghost in “ghostwriter” until she attends a signing for a book she wrote — and the author doesn’t even recognize her. The evening turns more promising when she meets a charming man at the bar and immediately connects with him. But when all their sexual tension culminates in a spectacularly awkward hookup, she decides this is one night better off forgotten.

Unfortunately, that’s easier said than done. Her next project is ghostwriting a memoir for Finn Walsh, a C-list actor best known for playing a lovable nerd on a cult classic werewolf show who now makes a living appearing at fan conventions across the country. But Chandler knows him better from their one-night stand of hilarious mishaps.

Chandler’s determined to keep their partnership as professional as possible, but when she admits to Finn their night together wasn’t as mind-blowing as he thought it was, he’s distraught. He intrigues her enough that they strike a deal: when they’re not working on his book, Chandler will school Finn in the art of satisfaction. As they grow closer both in and out of the bedroom, they must figure out which is more important, business or pleasure — or if there’s a way for them to have both.

Yes yes yes, I want all of this. This has the potential to be such a great book. I have a feeling that I’m really going to like the redemption arc of Finn as well.

Out: June 13, 2023

Lee Gulliver never thought she’d find herself living on the streets — no one ever does — but when her restaurant fails, and she falls deeper into debt, she leaves her old life behind with nothing but her clothes and her Toyota Corolla. In Seattle, she parks in a secluded spot by the beach to lay low and plan her next move — until early one morning, she sees a sobbing woman throw herself into the ocean. Lee hauls the woman back to the surface, but instead of appreciation, she is met with fury. The drowning woman, Hazel, tells her that she wanted to die, that she’s trapped in a toxic, abusive marriage, that she’s a prisoner in her own home. Lee has thwarted her one chance to escape her life.

Out of options, Hazel retreats to her gilded cage, and Lee thinks she’s seen the last of her, until her unexpected return the next morning. Bonded by disparate but difficult circumstances, the women soon strike up a close and unlikely friendship. And then one day, Hazel makes a shocking request: she wants Lee to help her disappear. It’ll be easy, Hazel assures her, but Lee soon learns that nothing is as it seems, and that Hazel may not be the friend Lee thought she was.

I have come to appreciate mysteries more because they make my brain work. It goes through all the possibilities that could happen. Like is Hazel the abuser? Or is Hazel running away from someone more dangerous than she lets on? I will be reading this bookk to find out. I might not even wait to find it secondhand. It might be when I find it for like less than $15 instead.

Out: June 20, 2023

This heart-pounding slasher by New York Times bestselling author Kalynn Bayron is perfect for fans of Fear Street.

Charity Curtis has the summer job of her dreams, playing the “final girl” at Camp Mirror Lake. Guests pay to be scared in this full-contact terror game, as Charity and her summer crew recreate scenes from a classic slasher film, Curse of Camp Mirror Lake. The more realistic the fear, the better for business.

But the last weekend of the season, Charity’s co-workers begin disappearing. And when one ends up dead, Charity’s role as the final girl suddenly becomes all too real. If Charity and her girlfriend Bezi hope to survive the night, they’ll need figure out what this killer is after. Is there is more to the story of Mirror Lake and its dangerous past than Charity ever suspected?

A good ole thriller to wrap up the list. There’s nothing particular that stands out to me, other than the ‘final girl’ mention. I read Riley Sager’s Final Girls and absolutely loved it. I figure that if Kalynn Baryon reads the same books as I do, then maybe she’ll write in a way that I like too.